Agincourt Community Services Association
Grantee
Grow Grant
Award amount
$427,200
Award timeline
2016-2019 (36 months)
Age group
Children up to 12 years
Catchment
Toronto
Community size
Urban
Population served
General population
Opportunity
Middle childhood is a critical development time in a child's life, and support from parents and caregivers can have a huge positive impact. However, parents often receive little help and guidance in how to support their children between the ages of six and twelve.
Approach
Selected Grant Result: Parents, caregivers and adult allies have the skills to support children and youth who are facing barriers.
The Agincourt Community Services Association worked with the Middle Childhood Matters Coalition Toronto to provide parents, caregivers, and adult allies with professional community conversations, webinars, peer-to-peer mentoring, and other learning opportunities to help them support their children through their middle years.
Community impact
- Over 1,000 low income, newcomer, and racialized parents with children in middle childhood across Toronto were able to access opportunities and resources to help their children.
- Seventy-one percent of parents gained access to materials, tools, and skill building knowledge.
- They also reported high levels of knowledge, confidence, and parental satisfaction in topic areas relevant to their children's development, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, and critical thinking.
ACSA wanted to better equip parents, caregivers, and adult allies to support their children’s development during their middle years.
The middle childhood stage, between the ages of six and twelve, is crucial to children's development. Research has found that this time in a person's life lays the groundwork for their personal identity, lifelong skills, habits, and values.
It's also a time when mental health, behavioural, and learning challenges can become more visible. By intervening early to support children during middle childhood, parents and other caregivers can help them overcome challenges and thrive.
Ontario is home to over one million children in middle childhood, and some face bigger challenges than others.
Parents, caregivers and other caring adults can support children during this critical window by providing them with the opportunities and resources they need. They can also support them by identifying "early warning signs" of mental health, behavioural, and learning challenges.
The Agincourt Community Services Association (ACSA) acts as a bridge between people who need help and those who can provide it. ACSA wanted to better equip parents, caregivers, and adult allies to support their children’s development during their middle years.
With the help of a $427,200 Grow grant through OTF, they worked with the Middle Childhood Matters Coalition Toronto to provide professional community conversations, webinars, peer-to-peer mentoring, and other learning opportunities. As well as the funding, 90 volunteers contributed 7,560 volunteer hours.
Young people are Ontario's most valuable resource. During the project, over 1303 low income, newcomer, and racialized parents with children in middle childhood across Toronto benefited from parent learning sessions, knowledge exchange events, and access to resources.
Seventy-one percent of parents gained access to materials, tools, and skill building knowledge. This helps them build high levels of knowledge, confidence, and parental satisfaction when it comes to supporting their children's resiliency, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-regulation, critical thinking, problem solving abilities, and communication abilities at such a crucial stage of their lives.
